/ CBS News
Analysis of Trump trial verdict
Washington — Former President Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said Friday that Trump’s legal team plans to challenge Trump’s guilty verdict in his New York criminal case, expressing confidence that the conviction will be overturned on appeal.
“We want to move forward with an appeal,” Blanche told CBS News’ chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa. “We think an appeal has a lot of merit. We think we’re going to win on appeal.”
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on Thursday of falsifying business records in the case, which stemmed from a payment to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Trump, who has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, denounced the trial as “rigged.”
Blanche said it’s unlikely Trump’s legal team will ask for his July 11 sentencing date to be moved, suggesting that they’re eager to get past it and onto the appeal. Trump’s sentencing is scheduled four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to officially become the party’s nominee.
“Getting to an appeal is important for him and important for the American people,” Blanche said, adding that the legal team plans to bring up “a lot of issues” during appeal, including matters related to the state’s statute of limitations, jurisdiction questions and evidentiary decisions.
“That process starts after sentencing,” he said.
Blanche said Trump and his team will fight the conviction “all the way to whatever court will finally right this wrong,” and did not rule out a possible petition for a review by the Supreme Court.
He conceded “it’s possible” that Trump could be behind bars during the convention if the judge imposes jail or prison time and declines to pause the sentence as the appeals process plays out.
“If there is a sentence of incarceration, and how that is carried out and when it’s carried out — I expect that we would ask for a stay of any sentence while the appellate process works its way through the courts,” Blanche said. “That’s discretionary. That’s not something that has to be granted. So that’s something that I don’t want to think about. I don’t think it’s going to happen. But it’s possible, of course.”
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
